Island of illusions: Odysseus's failure.
by Edia
Summary: This was an assignment for school where we had to wright another adventure for Odysseus and his men before they went home, it turned out better then I though it would (plus the teacher loved it) But in this, Odysseus finds a battle that he can not win, an


  
  
  
We sailed along the seas for three long and uneventful months after loosing more men to the vicious sea monster. All of us longed to see home again more than anything, especially me; just the thought of seeing friendly land and the remainder of my family again set my hopes high, though I would never reveal that to my men. As I sat in my dark caption's chamber alone with my thoughts of home, I could hear muffled conversation among my crew from the deck below. I had suspicions that something had happened to stir them up, but I wasn't sure until I heard the steadily running sound of pounding of boots on wood coming closer to my chambers by the second. Just as I suspected, one of my closest mates came running in, a bit out of breathe from the run, "Captain, your never going to believe this, but those strong northbound winds that had been reported last night that we though were going to blow us off course did just the opposite!" He stopped for a minute from the excitement of the news to catch his breath. Then he went on, "Smitty has just reported land up ahead, and it's geographical features match exactly of home!   
I stopped a second to let his words sink in. I almost couldn't believe what I just heard, though I showed no expression on my face, inside I was more than overjoyed. "Are we still heading on course?" I questioned "Yes sir, we are now on full speed heading northward toward home" He said excitedly. I have waited so long to hear those words; those few simple words meant more to me than the million spoken to me in my entire lifetime.   
"Then I suggest we have a special celebration for the occasion: Bring out our finest wine and our reserve lamb meat, Make sure that no man goes without his fill" I commanded. I knew that there would be celebration back at home in our names, but I wouldn't let any one of our crew go onto land without a reward for their voyage and bravery under my command. I than saw Scrweer's face light up with joy, of all the years that I have known him, I've never seen him show such emotion at one time; He is very skilled when it comes to holding back emotions, I've never seen them all come out like this, but I have to admit, this is a joyous time.  
We set our ship on a steady course towards home using the northbound winds as our guide as we celebrated in a feast. Finally, when the wine was gone and the lamb meat was finished, our ship docked onto the island shore. Strangely, no crowds were there waiting, and there were no beach side homes like I remembered, the whole beach looked completely deserted. As I went off the ship to examine the beach more closely, behind me, the men were getting restless.  
But soon, the mumbles of the confused men turned to anger as they started kicking things and cursing to the gods for once again leading us astray. I remained calm as I further examined the beach, but what I did find was one set of footprints that had been embedded in the sand made from a sandal of what seemed like a human. Beside those tracks were the hove prints of what appeared to be a horse. I decided not to tell the others for I feared that they might attempt to raid the island.  
I then turned around to my angered men. "Listen as I speak! Do not get angered so quickly, lets explore more of this island before we do anything else" I yelled back to my men who were still on the ship. They agreed to my suggestion without argument, and came down off the ship to be broken up into teams to search the island. I split them up evenly into three teams; my best warriors were split into both along with my best navigators so the others wouldn't loose their way as they searched. The last team, consisting of my advisors, stayed behind with me at the ships.  
At nightfall came upon up, the two teams returned to where we had docked our ship. All the one team could report was various foot and hove prints around the beach, but the other team reported some more interesting news. "Captain, " The leader of the group came up to me to report, "Far back on this vast island near the opposite end of the coast, we have seen a wonder that has never been witnessed my human eyes; a huge garden, takes up more than half of the island alone with colossal gates outlining the perimeter. This garden was like no other; there was not one tree nor plant, no matter how small, neglected anywhere. Everywhere you look were beautiful full-bloomed trees and fresh plump fruit, there wasn't one part of the garden that showed a single sign of neglect anywhere; it truly was gorgeous sight unlike any other.  
I realized that this maiden that he spoke of must have been the one that made the footprints in the sand off of the coast, so I assumed that she must be the only one inhabiting this island. After another moment of though, keeping in mind our other adventures where we foolishly got tricked by magic and lost more of our already thinning out crew and further delayed our trek home, I spoke to the crew. "Men, we will again divide ourselves into parties and venture off to consult this maiden that you speak of, she could help us on our journey home. The divisions will be planned tomorrow at early sunrise, now we all must rest ourselves and be prepared for whatever the gods see fit for the future, we must never let our guard down until we have reached our homeland."  
With that, all of my men boarded the ship and went back into their cabins to get whatever sleep that they could. I myself went back to my cabin in hopes that if the men saw me go, then they would be more willing to go themselves and at least try to sleep. However, I knew that I would get very little if any sleep tonight, there was so much to plan for tomorrow. But I have gotten my men out of plenty of dangers by now using my wits, I am sure that I can handle whatever fate may through at us.  
The night passed quickly and the fierce morning sun shining through the cracks in my cabin walls was fierce enough to wake a beast of any size. I went out of my cabin with my armor equipped and off the ship into the sand that was slowly heating up under my bare feet in the warm morning sun. As I went off the ship, I saw that many of my men has already awoken, others just waking up. I stood outside of my ship, and in a deep monstrous tone, I called out to them, "The sun had already risen above the horizon, the day calls out to you! We must begin our new adventure here with haste, all hands report to the beach!" With that, more of my men came out, armor equipped, ready for my oncoming orders.  
I then divided up my men into two groups; one group, with two of my best warriors along with my advisor, came with me consisted of merely 6 men. While the other group, with my most trusted friend, went in the other group to stay behind with the ships in case an incident might occur to us. They were instructed to stay by the ships for five days, after the fifth night, if there was no sign of us then they would sail off in search of home with the assumption that our party was dead. The party that I lead would go to the garden and seek guidance from this maiden.  
The sun was fully shining in the sky when we arrived at the garden. He was right, everything that was said to me about this mysterious place was true; everywhere in sight were trees that grew to the heavens, and fruit so plump and ripe that it made my mouth water just by looking at it. I didn't quite understand how we could have missed such a sight when we first arrived at the island; this place was massive and was truly a hard place to miss, even from a far away distance. I put those thoughts aside, for I would surely find an explanation later, when I saw the maiden that was tending to the garden, she was truly a beautiful sight to see; she had full long thin hair that flowed long past her hips in a buttery cream yellow color, it seemed to fly on the air as she gracefully danced from plant to plant checking each one with such care, that it was no wonder the garden was in such a superior condition. She then looked up at us; she had an inhuman pale skin color with a slight tint of crimson in her cheeks, her eyes were oval in shape and she stared at us with powdery blue eyes as if she was studying us.  
As my men stared at awe at the beauty in front of them, I shook it off to focus and stepped forward towards the gate that stood between us. "Young maiden, we are newcomers to this island and we ask to be welcomed into your dwellings," I said to her as she continued to study us. Behind her, the Pegasus who was quiet a minute ago started to stomp its hooves against the dirt and get restless, the beautiful maiden simply ignored it and continued to study us. She then smiled, as her pale face seemed for a second to contain life, and said to us "Travelers are always welcomed into my dwellings, please enter." She then stretched out her arm that was covered in a long baby blue sleeve, only one shade darker than her eye color, and touched the gate that separated us and, as if by magic, an opening was created for us.   
By now, the Pegasus was getting even more restive, and started kicking up dirt. "Dumb beast" the maiden called out to it, "Can you not see that we have guests present?" she said in a calm but sturdy voice. She then lead them past where the Pegasus was tied to one of the towering trees, and deep into the garden. It was a long 20-minute walk through the garden, I had noticed that my men behind me couldn't help but look left to right relentlessly, I had wanted to stop them, but even I couldn't help staring at the magnificent beauty of nature around me. Finally, we arrived at the core of the garden, there lie a titanic castle made of a fine navy marble with vines bearing berries grew along the walls above the thousands of berry bushes lining the bottom of the castle walls.  
Just then, the though came back to me; this castle could easily reach above to touch the gods, than how could my navigator possibly have missed this? All of this simply didn't add up, the missed garden and now this castle? My thoughts were interrupted by the maiden's heavenly voice calling out to us like a songbird introducing a new morning, "This is my dwelling, if you would please follow me I will show you more." She than lead us into the castle on legs that seemed to dance on air as she walked.   
Inside the castle was even bigger than it looked from the outside; the walls were lined with satin and assorted silks hanging from torches that lined the walls offering light to the long hallways after sundown. The floor was also the navy marble, but it didn't have a scratch on it even though marble is so soft that any shoe would make even a small mark on it! She than lead us into a huge room with a master table in the center that was made of almost pure gold and seemed to shine at us as we stared at it. "Please be seated" Her song-like voice sang into our ears. All of the men found seats and some kind of wine was served to us after we all sat down.  
After my first sip, things after that became a blur of various sounds and colors. When I recovered, I looked up and saw my men all deep in happily conversation among one another and the maiden, looking out the window, I saw the sun setting over the horizon. "What have you done to me?" I stood up from my chair and yelled to the maiden who was talking to one of my advisors. She looked up at me and blinked "What do you mean? You have been in deep conversation all evening" she said calmly. I replayed the events that I could remember in my head once again, and I remembered no such thing. I than turned to one of my advisors and he just shook his head in a way that suggested 'yes'.  
As I sat there in confusion, the maiden then got up from her chair where she was sitting. "The night is sneaking up upon us, please stay the night! There are extra quarters available for each of you, so please follow me" she said in her voice that was hard to resist. I saw no real harm here, so I agreed, but I warned everyone to keep their guard up during the night, because I still didn't completely trust this place. We were all shown to individual rooms and than left alone. I attempted to sleep in my armor, but I wasn't able, so after much debating, I ended up taking it off to sleep. The bed was made of feathery down and it was easy to fall asleep, which isn't normal for me to do, but tonight, I was out like a light.   
I was suddenly awakened by a loud thrashing noise that seemed to come from one of the long hallways. My first though was that someone was in a battle, but that though was dismissed after I listened for a little longer. I wanted to stay in the comforts of my bed, but my curiosity got the better of me, and so I got out of my silky resting place, and went into the hallways to investigate the noise. Outside of my room, the hallways were dark and lonely. The only source of light were scattered torches along the walls placed about 50 feel apart from each other. I followed the noise down several hallways, each one that I went down the noise became louder. Finally, I found the source of the commotion, it was only the Pegasus kicking up it's heals and pounding them onto the marble floor. "Stop that!" I yelled at it, "Your going to scratch up the floor and wake up the others, you dumb beast!" The Pegasus stopped and looked up at me, then backed away from the spot where it had been kicking, I looked down at the floor and saw that there was not a dent nor scratch on the marble where the Pegasus had once been kicking.  
"How..." I started as I stared in disbelief at the floor. "Odysseus, you and your men must leave this place" called out a stern voice. I looked up at the Pegasus; I knew that the voice must have come from it, but how? "Please listen, this is all a mind trick think about it." the voice continued. Now I knew it came from the Pegasus, there was no one else around. The Pegasus continued to stare at me like it was waiting for a reaction from me, I thought about what it said; how else could I explain when we saw what looked like home, or when not one of my men could see either the garden or castle from the ship before we came onto the island!  
Just as those thoughts went though my head, the beautiful navy marble vanished replacing it with cold hard stone. The millions of extra rooms turned into cold cells with dirty, rusty bars confining creatures, some looked human, who seemed to be in various forms of torture in each cell. One of the prisoners, who was right in front of me, was a half man half wolf, was screaming out "Mercy! Show mercy in my time of judgment Clow Reed!" He called out, not to me, but to someone beyond me.   
I erase that though from my mind, and just as quickly as I did that, the images disappeared from sight. I turned towards the Pegasus about to question what I had just seen, but when I turned around, it was galloping away out of sight. I checked the walls, nothing felt different at al; it felt like marble, no holes or cracks or anything out of the ordinary. I slowly went back to my chambers, and lay down on the bed.  
I sat there now unable to sleep despite the silky bed. Just then he remembers a story that had been from an old myth that he had read a long time ago called "Clow and a million restless souls" the myth said that an eternal maiden inhabited the island of a thousand illusions, and in the very center of the island is the castle where she dwells. She is the keeper of the dead; she punishes all of the souls who have made wrongs in their lifetime so that they may move onto the next life with a pure soul. However, it goes on to say that the maiden had two forms, when the devil's month comes, (October) her other form is released to gather the souls of the dead, then for five months after that, they are taken into the castle and punished for their crimes. However, during the gathering process, wandering and lost sailors are sometimes lured onto the island by her illusion trick by letting them see the island of whatever they have been searching for. Since she is the evil form, she doesn't let's them go, and let's them suffer in their own personal torture along with the souls of the dead for five months. When her pure side is released again from her Pegasus form, she spreads light throughout the castle allowing the souls to go on to the next life, and letting the sailors go free, however, they will never forget those five months of unworldly torturer that they had to endure or the screams of pain of a million restless souls. It is said to live with them forever.  
Now everything added up, the myth that he had once thought imposable became a chilling reality. Suddenly, my bed turned to hard stone and I banged my head hard on the edge as I heard a familiar voice call to me, "Odysseus, so you finally figured it out. Isn't it unfortunate that you have come into my illusion?" the maiden asked me from outside of my cell. I jumped up instantly with my small sword drawn. "Where are the rest of my men?" I questioned. "They have already began their punishment" she answered.   
Just then, I could hear the voices of my men calling out to me in screams of pain, "Odysseus! What is happening?!" "Help us!" "Were all going to die here!" But the one that bothered me the most was "You have lead us through so much, why couldn't you help us through this?" At that, I covered my ears; I wanted not to hear any more. I knelt down as if I was in pain, I knew that I could not resist against this deathly force, no matter what I tried it would come to wasted effort...I have failed, and now await my punishment for my earthly wrongs.  
Five long and torturous months my men and I suffered through, finally, the day came when all darkness broke. I looked up through a blurred vision; I have not had use for my eyes in 5 months, I doubted whether I would ever use them again. A large aura of light lit up the castle from the Pegasus breaking our chains and sending her other self into the Pegasus body after entrapping her darkness. Terrible weakened, barely able to support our own weight, we stood up and regrouped. She than came over to us and said "Odysseus, what had happened to you and your men is a tragedy. Because you were tricked by illusion, I will grant you your safe journey home" She said.   
I looked up at her panting for breath. "Let me stay, let me fight off your evil self so that no other man will have to endure a deathly torture ever again" I commanded. She only smiled down on me. "You rest now, you have seen things that will stay with you for the rest of your life. This battle is not yours to fight; if you try you will only end up in eternal punishment. This is a battle that only I can fight, leave now." With that, we were all transported to our homeland. As we expected, there was great celebration and recognition for our bravery, we also mourned the losses of our comrades, but we have endured the pain of an unmanly torture and felt the pain of the dead, which we may never fully recover from.  
And no matter how much of a hero that they recognize me as, I will only remember the time that I let them down, and for that, I see myself as a failure.   
  
  
  



End file.
